“If a woman is quick with child, and by a potion or otherwise, killeth it
in her womb, or if any one beat her, whereby the child dieth in her body,
and she is delivered of a dead child, this, though not murder, was by the
ancient law homicide, or manslaughter. But the modern law doth not look
upon this offence in quite so atrocious a light, but merely as a heinous
misdemeanor.”[170] “But if the child be born alive, and afterwards die in
consequence of the potion or beating, it will be murder.”[171]
By this law it is necessary to furnish proof not merely of pregnancy, but
of quickening; no one besides the mother can be reached, save in the rare
instance of beating; it is often impossible to prove that a child, born
living, has died in consequence of means used upon itself or its mother
before the birth.
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